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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

This vocal offering from Ian Bostridge, here starting the Schubert song cycle Winterreise, is in appropriately sombre mood. One of our fellow ABForummers has just recently been introduced to the Art song. What better example than this?

Bedrich Smetana's The Moldau, one of six pieces celebrating his country in his materpiece, Ma Vlast, gives us repose. The depth and beauty he saw in this great river is easily felt in this vey popular symphonic poem.

And the last contribution to today's Sunday Classical collection is a thrilling performance of Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen and I have waited to post this since Griffin posted the Valse Sentimentale by Tchaikovsky two Sundays ago, which reminded me of it.

I dedicate this to those brave and noble souls overcoming their own trials and tribulations to prepare entertainment for us while others can only look on and post pieces on Sunday for their own Satiety.

Thanks everyone. I'm doing alright. One foot in front of the other. Unfortunately I'm at that age where my family will start going to the great gig in the sky. Nothing to do but work through it and be supportive for my family.

Learning Satie has now become tied up with honoring my uncle (don't ask me why I don't understand my own brain at the best of times) so practicing now is got a bit of a punch to it.

Thanks everyone. I'm doing alright. One foot in front of the other. Unfortunately I'm at that age where my family will start going to the great gig in the sky. Nothing to do but work through it and be supportive for my family.

Learning Satie has now become tied up with honoring my uncle (don't ask me why I don't understand my own brain at the best of times) so practicing now is got a bit of a punch to it.

Good always comes from bad. Hope your all doing well.

Becca, I think it's a beautiful way to honor your uncle with your piano selection. It will give even deeper meaning to it all.

Thanks a lot, Richard for such a great selections for Sunday Classical! Your sacrifice for Griffin's practice is quite admirable, but you're not going to be excused for our next-to-next recital on Mendelssohn anyway.

At last I could listen to the Sunday postings. Excellent job Richard, you made fantastic choices.

BTW, I had heard of this dramatized video of Ian Bostridge singing the Winterreise, but I hadn’t watched it before, and was curious. The first lied is amazingly sung. I see the whole video is uploaded to Youtube… Wow.

During a formal dinner party at the lavish mansion of Señor Edmundo Nobile and his wife, Lucia, the servants unaccountably leave their posts until only the major-domo is left. After dinner the guests adjourn to the music room, where one of the women, Blanca, plays a piano sonata. Later, when they might normally be expected to return home, the guests unaccountably remove their jackets, loosen their gowns, and settle down for the night on couches, chairs and the floor.

By morning it is apparent that, for some inexplicable reason, they are psychologically, but not physically, trapped in the music room. Unable to leave, the guests consume what little water and food is left from the previous night's party. Days pass, and their plight intensifies; they become quarrelsome, hostile, and hysterical - only Dr. Carlos Conde, applying logic and reason, manages to keep his cool and guide the guests through the ordeal. One of the guests, the elderly Sergio Russell, dies, and his body is placed in a large cupboard. Béatriz and Eduardo, a young couple about to be married, lock themselves in a closet and commit suicide.

Eventually, several sheep and a bear break loose from their bonds and find their way to the room; the guests take in the sheep and proceed to slaughter and roast them on fires made from floorboards and broken furniture. Dr. Conde reveals to Nobile that one of his patients, Leonora, is dying from cancer and accepts a secret supply of morphine from the host to keep her fit. The supply of drugs is however stolen by Francis and Juana, an incestuous brother and sister. Ana, a crazed guest and a practitioner of witchcraft, invokes the demons of heck while lapsing into feverish hallucinations.

Eventually, Raúl suggests that Nobile is responsible for their predicament and that he must be sacrificed. Only Dr. Conde and the noble Colonel Alvaro oppose the angry mob claiming Nobile's blood. As Nobile offers to take his own life, a young, foreign guest, Letitia (nicknamed "La Valkiria") sees that they are all in the same positions as when their plight began. Obeying her instructions, the group starts reconstructing their conversation and movements from the night of the party and discover that they are then free to leave the room. Outside the manor, the guests are greeted by the local police and the servants that had left the house on the night of the party.

To give thanks for their salvation, the guests attend a Te Deum at the cathedral. When the service is over, the churchgoers along with the clergy are also trapped. It is not entirely clear though, whether those that were trapped in the house before are now trapped again. They seem to have disappeared. The situation in the church is followed by a riot on the streets and the military step in to brutally clamp down on the rioters. The last scene shows a pack of sheep entering the church in a row, accompanied by the sound of gunshots.

I have given a commitment to do the Sunday Classical postings. I will honour that commitment. It will be a pleasure to spread a little joy and happiness, as we do in this thread, amongst all the trials and tribulations of life.

This thread is a comfort. It's a source of solace when we're besieged by life's constant sorrows. It's a place where we can come to share our music; songs and sounds that please us and we want others to experience the joys they bring.

Here is a gentle place where everyone is convivial, where we can relax in the warm glow of friendship. When the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune spoil our sojourn in this world of worries and woes, here we have a safe haven to smooth over the sharpness of stress and console the spirit.

Hush! Listen.

Here's a place we can turn to at the end of the day and smile.

Here's a place where music silences the noise of anguish and anxiety that vex us as we make our wearied way through this world.

Music, be it easy, light or passionate and full of emotion, music chosen by others that we might not otherwise have heard or listened to and that gives us variety, an infusion of energy.

A sunny, desert island in the stormy seas of life.

Vita brevis. There isn't time to spread anything but humour, peace and joy. Few complain that there's too much of them in the world.

Richard, I also appreciate your post about this thread. It represents many of things I feel. No matter how busy things are for me, I take comfort in being able to at least check in throughout the day. Yes, there are some good friendships are here. Also, a wealth of wonderful sharing of our music and ourselves. Also, I can't thank you enough for taking on the Sunday classical postings.

Becca, you and your family are in my thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you when you return from your uncle's funeral.

Recaredo, I'm glad you checked in today. You've had an influence on my music learning journey, as does everyone else who contributes to this thread. My post today is a performance of the Chicago Flamenco Company Ensemble Español celebrating its 35-year anniversary. Enjoy!

I really dislike folk like Andy williams dying because now they will play millions of his songs for ages and I dont like any of them.

Perhaps a fitting "punishment" for those with a less than compassionate outlook on Andy's life and times and music...too bad he didn't play jazz also... And I imagine that poor old Andy wasn't too awfully happy about this event either...

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Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. Frederic Chopin